Following on from Part 1: Autonomy and Part 2: Mastery, the third component of motivation is Purpose. With these three components combined they enable the highest level of intrinsic motivation. For me, purpose is the most challenging area to develop when seeking to build motivation in teams. Often because it is usually ingrained and driven by an individual’s own belief system and buried within the complex layers of being human.
Purpose
Defined as the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists.
Purpose can be referred to as “capital P” which is best described as having a purpose that is changing the World, reducing fossil fuels, saving lives, and so on. The capital P emphasises how powerful this motivator can be. Think of the people who will put their own life on the line. Because their values and beliefs are so motivated to save others. Such as firefighters or the bomb squad.
As a leader and for most people working with teams, the capital P purpose may be difficult for employees to access. It can be a stretch for the standard office worker to really see how their role changes the World. This is where the “little p” purpose comes in to play. Little p is much easier to develop in the workplace.
You can see little p purpose every day. Employees may be thinking if I show up to work today, will people care? Will my clients get the same service without me? Does what I do matter to those around me? These questions are all about an individual being able to make a contribution. When people feel that they are contributing it is likely to increase diligence, conscientiousness, and improve performance. Absenteeism is low and they tend to be more enthusiastic about their work. To understand the level of your team's current state connection to purpose, below are a few questions to get the conversation started.
Three questions to draw out your team's level of purpose:
How do you describe what you do to your friends? Here you are seeking to understand how the team members view their work. If the response is purely stating a task or activity, it is a sign of low connection to purpose. Look for the emotional tone to the response, is it resigned and low energy or enthusiastic and proud?
How do you describe the purpose of our business? Similar to the first question, consider if you receive a tactical response, such as “we make walking frames”. Or an altruistic response like “we help people walk again”.
What are you passionate about and care about? Frame the question in the context of work. Look for their face to light up when talking about what they care about at work. This could range from helping customers, solving problems, or even getting the spreadsheet's columns to balance. Giving space to talk about passions and interests will build your relationship. It will also help identify if their passion and role aligns.
The best approach is to grow both capital P and little P. To do this be prepared to dedicate some serious time and continual messaging. As a leader, to communicate that your teams work is valuable you will need to continually check in and follow up. If this is new for your team, it is an area to tread delicately around at the start. As your team is more comfortable to talk about purpose, over time you can really grow motivation and deliver amazing transformations for your team and business.
Another approach is to explain the connection to purpose when you delegate activities.
If you are not sure where to start, here is a link to a Ted talk by John Doerr about setting goals and objectives to make a difference. John provides examples of how to be clear on the how, what and why.
Small side note, people join organisations for many reasons. Sometimes they do not consider the organisation’s or role purpose. That is okay. But it is very difficult to instantly create purpose within someone. They already had capital P purpose before they met you and it is rare for that to change. To be the best they can be, working somewhere that aligns with their deeper values and beliefs will be better for both sides in the long run. Be brave to have this conversation.
This blog post was inspired by Daniel Pink’s book Drive. Which has way more scientific evidence to support these core principles. This post is my take on each component.
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